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Latest News
Walk in their Shoes | Elsdon, Harbottle, Alnham, Barrowburn, Thropton
Friday 2 June 2023
Walk in the footsteps and hear the stories and memories of people who have lived, worked and played high up in the Coquet Valley The Out of Town Museum (OOT ) has been collecting memories and photographs to capture the stories and tales told about how life used to be in the valley and...
Welcome to Coquetdale – Lose yourself in a musical landscape
Wednesday 26 April 2023
Watch and listen to this wonderfully stirring musical film, inspired by the collective stories, landscape and voices of Coquetdale. An extraordinary journeyThe Out of Town Museum commissioned local composer and folk musician Ian Stephenson to create this new and unique aural and visual journey through the valley. The soundtrack features Ian and fellow Northumbrian...
Thropton and a chance to see a change of scene
Wednesday 26 April 2023
We have already welcomed over 270 visitors to the OOT exhibition as we visit Village Halls in Coquetdale. Thropton is on Saturday 29th from 10am until 4pm with a guided “Walk in their Shoes” starting at 12 noon. You can read and hear stories and memories of people who have lived and live in...
Alwinton Border Shepherds’ Show 2000
Thursday 6 April 2023
Alwinton Border Shepherds Show – 2000 Memories – footage from 2000 of the largest of the Coquetdale Shows, always held the second Saturday in October.
Rothbury next …..
Monday 3 April 2023
Thank you to everyone who came to our first exhibition at Elsdon on 1st April. We have had some lovely feedback about our interactive content and beautiful music and images. Next up is Rothbury on Saturday 15th April in the URC Hall with have a go Quoits and Rag rugging. Open from 10am-4pm with...
OOT & Aboot – Talking Coquetdale exhibition
Friday 17 February 2023
Look out! The Out of Town Museum (OOT) will be touring Coquetdale in April and May visiting Elsdon (01/04), Rothbury (15/04), Hepple (22/04), Thropton (29/4), Alnham (3/5)m Netherton (13/5) and Harbottle (18/5). The OOT Museum is a National Lottery Heritage funded project which celebrates the rural heritage of Coquetdale; capturing the stories of people...
Words game – the answers
Wednesday 3 August 2022
Here are the answers to our words. Did you guess them? 1 – Bulls’ snouts Tufts of thick grass 2 – Cuddswitted Left handed 3 – Yett Gate 4 – Canny Nice or cleaver 5 – Deek Look 6 – Rake Around Wander 7 – Owalt Sheep on its back 8 – Spelk Splinter...
Powburn Show – here we come
Wednesday 3 August 2022
After two years, OOT are delighted to be heading back to all the shows and fairs this year. Look forward to seeing you there!
Premiere “Welcome to Coquetdale” New music inspired by stories, landscape and voices of Coquetdale
Saturday 25 June 2022
The 2022 Rothbury Traditional Music Festival is on Friday 15th – Sunday 17th July with a line up which includes The Damien Mullane trio, Eryn Rae & Scott Turnbull, Cameron Nixon, Ken Wilson, Andy May plus Johnny Handle & Chris Hendry. Did somebody mention bagpipes? Of course there will be marching and piping from...
Coquetdale Ceilidh – Just like the old days | Friday 13th May from 6.30 pm
Friday 1 April 2022
Come dancing with Alistair Anderson and the 422 band in Netherton Village Hall Learn some of the old dances beforehand in the workshop from 6.30pm – 7.30 pm, Main Dance starts at 8.00 pm Bar. Ticket prices includes supper from from Netherton WI. Tickets only £8 adults, £4 children. Please contact Sally on 07876...
The Late Twenties – M Philipson
Saturday 22 January 2022
Between the years 1924 – 29 my family (father, mother and five children) spent the month of August on holiday in Harbottle. We stayed at the Cherry Tree House which was occupied then by the grandparents of John Common, the postman. Old Mr. Common looked after the farm and his wife was a splendid...
Where’s London? by G Evans
Friday 21 January 2022
It was in September 1929 that my wife Gladys and I, she driving her 1913 Morris Oxford, decided to explore beyond Rothbury. The sun was setting as we came to the top of Sharperton Bank. She caught her breath at the glory before her: “The land of Beulah” she said – the last stopping place where pilgrims rest...
Clipping Time – Hannah Hutton
Thursday 20 January 2022
With that expression I can hear the sound of the steel blades of hand-shears clicking away at soft white fleece, and the more precise term “shearing” brings to mind the whirr of the electric machines. Clipping time to us was early 1960’s when Rowhope and Trows were handclipped by a gang of hired clippers....
Village Life, Harbottle – EA Robinson
Tuesday 4 January 2022
Towards the end of the 1914 -18 war, the East and West Woods were felled by Canadian lumberjacks; their camp was in the small field by the Back Burn. The timber was led to Rothbury railway station by a pale wagon drawn by a team of Canadian horses. The Presbyterian Minister lived in the...
For Archie Dagg – Helen Richardson
Friday 17 December 2021
Curlew gliding o’er the heather,Soft in melting cadence crieds,Tearing at the very heartstringsPouring beauty from the skies. High above, the green-backed plover,Fluting spins its magic spellO’er the silence of the water,At the quiet “Ladies’ Well”. All the lilting liquid rhythmsStored within the shepherd’s heartSkilfully he shaped and polished,Strung them with a craftsman’s art. Now...
The Cheviot Campaign – M Blakey
Thursday 16 December 2021
It was in 1979 that the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority became interested in our part of the world. There was a problem. Quantities of highly radioactive waste were piling up and the AEA did not know what to do with it. One suggestion was to bury it in granite rock providing that the granite was in a...
Life at the Manse – J MacDonald
Wednesday 15 December 2021
When we were first married and came to live in Harbottle there seemed to be an aura of romance in the fact that there was no electricity; we had wisely included paraffin lamps on our wedding present list. However in 1953 the village became electrified, except for us. The Presbyterian Church could not afford...
Wanderers from Westminster – John Philipson
Friday 26 November 2021
Following the last World War, it was, for a number of years, the practice of a party of Labour Members of Parliament to walk, each Whit weekend, successive sections of the Pennine Way. They had begun in Derbyshire and by 1950 it fell for them to complete the final stretch in the Cheviot hills....
Knickerbockered Boy – Veronica Fenwicke-Clennell
Thursday 25 November 2021
It was the Glorious Twelfth and the sun shining, promising a hot day. Gathered on the gravel drive in front of the grey stone mansion are family, friends, excited children, dogs, keepers and beaters. Among them stands a boy in a brown checked knickerbocker suit nervously handling his gun. It is to be his...